Libraries are dead in the water.
From the comfort of my own home I can watch videos on any topic - YouTube.
Get an encyclopedic overview of any subject - Wikipedia.
Find immense amounts of information on anything, instantly - Google.
Why would I want to leave home and go to the library to painstakingly look through shelves of books, being restricted to the amount of books that I can take home and remember to return the books before the due date? Tertiary students around the world have discovered that they can learn about any topic quickly and effortlessly.
There are no opening hours, no id cards and no librarians to go through.
With an internet connection, a student may literally browse the world's body of knowledge in seconds.
I can search the greatest thinkers of the past, access information that 20 years ago was difficult to find and that 50 years ago was both impossible and unimaginable.
The information age that we live in is the greatest period of the earths history.
Will libraries eventually be replaced? I don't know, I do know that I never use a library anymore, even when I want to search for journals or magazines, I use an electronic database.
Electronic databases are fantastic for the fact that I can search for a term or topic and instantly receive thousands if not millions of pieces of information.
Libraries around the world have seen a decrease in the number of people that use them.
This is in no small way thanks to Google, YouTube and Wikipedia.